Category: World Music

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Thaïs Shares a Club Friendly Bop

Rising Paris-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay Thaïs specializes in an atmospheric and delicate pop sound, which compliments her ethereal delivery. Thematically, her work typically focuses on melancholy, loneliness and dysfunctional, confusing, heartbreaking love.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past handful of years, you may recall that 2022 was a breakthrough year for the JOVM mainstay: She signed with Bravo Musique, who released her highly anticipated full-length debut, Tout est parfait.

Since then the French Canadian artist has had busy couple of years: She has expanded upon her growing profile, opening for KYO, M, Arianne Moffatt, Dumas and Suzane while working on her Blaise Borboën and Thaïs co-produced sophomore album Personne. The album also features contributions from La Faune’s multi-instrumentalist Jay Essiambre and bassist Émile Farley.

Slated for an April 4, 2025 release, the rising JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album will reportedly be “extroverted music for introverts” — energetic tracks that lead towards self-affirmation while allowing listeners to delve deeper into her universe.

Personne’s fourth single “Taxi” is a slickly produced, dance floor friendly bop that sounds as though it were inspired by Robyn. And while arguably being the most club ready songs of her growing catalog, the song is anchored by her penchant for pairing introspective lyrics with remarkably catchy hooks. The song’s narrator is on her way back from a night out, sitting in the backseat of the titular taxi, when she’s caught the ghost of a past relationship — through a favorite song or a passing by a place that reminds of her this past lover or something along those lines.

Directed by Alexis Boudrias, the accompanying video introduces us to a bruised and battered Thaïs waking up from some sort of accident and then performing the song in a bare studio. We also see the rising French-Canadian heading to a party and when she arrives, quickly realizes that she doesn’t belong. She makes an attempt to leave and winds up in the studio, where she presumably feels more like herself.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Freddi Rituali Shares Brooding and Icy “Giulia che balla”

Formed back in 2023, Italian synth pop/coldwave duo Freddi Rituali — Diego Ballani (vocals) and Marco Tosetti (guitar, synths, programming) — features two, grizzled Italian scene veterans: After spending 20 years in Italian power pop outfit Made, Ballani and Tosetti decided to start a music project largely inspired by 80s British synth pop, Italian New Wave groups like Diaframma and Germany’s CCCP, as well as contemporaries like JOVM mainstays The Vacant Lots and acclaimed Belarusians Molchat Doma. 

Last year, the duo released their self-titled debut EP and the EP featured the Flock of Seagulls-like “Per ridere di te,” which saw the Italian duo pairing glistening and icy synth arpeggios, mathematically precise, skittering beats with angular bursts of shimmering, reverb-soaked guitar, catchy hooks and Ballani’s earnest, emotive delivery.

In fact, for Anglophones, “Per ridere de ti,” may open up an alternate pop universe that sounds intimately familiar yet alien — but as infectious and as danceable as ever.

The duo began their 2025 with the release of a small batch of standalone singles that includes their latest single “Guilia che balla,” a brooding bit of minimalist coldwave featuring Ballani’s plaintive vocals singing introspective and Romantic lyrics over an icy synth soundscape that brings Molchat Doma and others to mind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Peter Gabriel!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Peter Gabriel’s 75th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Shares a Mischievous and Breakneck Ripper

With the release of their debut EP, 2023’s BONJOUR, the French Canadian JOVM mainstays DVTR —  Le Couleur‘s Laurence G-Do a.k.a. Demi Lune and Gazoline‘s,  Kandle‘s Xavier Caféine‘s and Gab Bouchard‘s JC Tellier, a.k.a. Jean Divorce — burnt up the Canadian indie scene: The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 Lists and earned the duo a handful of awards in Québec. 

Last year saw the duo building upon the momentum of the previous year, with an expanded edition of their debut EP, BONJOUR (BIS), which featured two bonus tracks that I wrote about on this site:

The Montrealers supported both the original and expanded editions of BONJOUR with a frenetic tour schedule that included an Asian and German tour. They closed out the year with a sold-out show at Montréal’s Les Foufounes Électriques and Revelation of the Year, Punk Album/EP of the Year and Animated Video of the year award wins at last year’s Gala Alternatif de la Musique Indépendante du Québec (GAMIQ).

The duo begins 2025 with the breakneck and mischievous “Né pour flâner (Born to loiter), a song that further cements the duo’s uncanny knack for mosh pit friendly, catchy hooks, punchily delivered vocals and furious synth and guitar riffage.

The accompanying video features footage shot while the band was touring across Germany and Asia, capturing their raucous and goofy energy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alain Void Shares 80s Synth Pop-Inspired “Roba de pecore”

Italian electronic musician and producer Alain Void emerged into the synthwave/electro pop scene back in 2022 with his solo recording project, Empty Essence, which meshed elements of post-punk, electro pop and darkwave with lyrics that tackle philosophical themes.

Over the past year, Void stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist, writing and recording under his own name. He was inspired by the need to spread awareness and awaken consciences through music.

His latest single “Roba de pecore” brings Violator-era Depeche Mode to mind with Void’s Dave Gahan-like vocal being paired with glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats and some remarkably catchy hooks.

The accompanying video is a gorgeously cinematic shot, black and white fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Adrian Jean Shares Sultry Bop “Cachaça”

Adrian Jean is an American-born, Brazilian-based R&B and pop singer/songwriter and producer, who currently splits his time between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Influenced by Stevie Wonder, Frank Ocean and Teena Marie, he quickly established a sound that blends old school with contemporary sounds with the release of his debut single, 2019’s “See The Stars,” which lead to his being named as a Bandsintown Big Break Artist. Jean has become a TikTok sensation with his work amassing over 25 million streams on the platform.

Since relocating to Brazil, Jean has built a strong connection with the country, collaborating with renowned local artists like Carol Biazin, MC Du Black, Ebony and YOUN, as well as production teams like Los Brasileros and Htimaker. Here in the States, Jean has collaborated with Jimmy Burney and Janette Sewell, best known as the co-writer of the Grammy Award-winning, smash hit “Empire State of Mind.“

The American-born, Brazilian-based artist’s highly anticipated EP King Size, which is slated for a May 2025 release. The EP’s first single is The Hitmaker — the production team of Andre Vieira, Wallace Vianna, and Breder — produced, show-stopping “Cachaça,” a seamless synthesis of contemporary pop and R&B, trap and Brazilian funk paired with Jean’s soulful crooning describing a universal sentiment — the desire to drink and dance away your heartache.

“Cachaça” can trace its origins back to a wildly successful songwriting camp hosted by Jean in Petrópolis, Brazil in 2021. He gathered a team that included Jimmy Burney, Carol Biazin, DAY, Limns and Hitmaker

Cachaça” was born during a songwriting camp hosted by Adrian in Petrópolis in 2021, and it continues to deliver hits today. For this track, he gathered an impressive team: Jimmy Burney, Carol Biazin, DAY Limns, and Hitmaker. “I didn’t sit in the studio thinking ‘today we’re going to make funk,'” Adrian Jean says. “My approach was: ‘today we’re going to create good music.'”

“The result was a song that, to me, sounds like a major label release; something I could hear on the radio,” he adds. “That made me feel great, knowing I produced this record. After working in Brazil for four years and immersing myself in the culture, I feel this is an inevitable reflection of my musical journey here.”

Directed by Junior Scoz and choreographed by Flávio Verne and Nayane Fernandes, the accompanying video for “Cachaça” was filmed in a bar in São Paulo emphasizes the song’s sultry, buzzing energy — while capturing the narrator’s desire to obliterate his pain with booze and dancing.

“Cachaça” was also part of the soundtrack for the Raphael Montes-written soap opera Beleza Fatal, which premiered on HBO last month.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Maga Córdova Shares Sultry “Lluvia (LIKE YOU)”

María Gracia Córdova, best known as Maga Córdova is a Guayaquil, Ecuador-born singer/songwriter, who can trace the origins of her career to her childhood: Her parents taught her that music was arguably the most genuine form of human expression.

Back in 2016, Córdova was a participant on La Voz Ecuador, where she acquired a number of valuable tools both professionally and personally, which helped her to start a solo career, which led to signing with a local record company.

Córdova released a handful of singles, including 2018’s “No Me Dejes Sola,” “Te Lo Buscaste,” “Amor Camuflado,” her hit “Error Tras Error,” and the 2021 international collaboration with Martina La Peligrosa “Cuando Nos Encontremos,” have helped her win a dedicated fanbase in Ecuador. Adding to a growing profile, she has shared stages with Morat, Greeicy, Gian Marco, Noel Schajris, Piso 21, Sebastián Yatra, Mau y Ricky and Luis Miguel.

After a years’ long hiatus, the Ecuadorian artist released three singles last year “Mil Gracias (KARMA),” “Vuelvo a Volar (HIGHLIGHTER)” and “Soy Otra,” which reflected her own evolution as a person and artist, while highlighting female empowerment. Those three tracks topped the Ecuadorian charts, demonstrating both her talent and the connection she has with her fans.

This year, the Ecuadorian artist plans to release a batch of new material that includes her latest single “Lluvia (LIKE YOU),” a slick, dance floor friendly synthesis of Larry Levan-like house, Latin music and Afrobeats anchored around the Ecuadorian artist’s sultry delivery.

The single is accompanied by a gorgeous visual shot at lakefront party that features some incredibly sexy dancing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Black History Month/Happy 80th Birthday, Bob Marley!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and the 80th anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Paris Duo La Punta Bianca Shares Eerily Dreamy Single

Paris-based synth pop/synthwave duo La Punta Bianca — Francesca Diprima (vocals) and Phillipe Brown (vocals, synths, drum machines) made a name for themselves in the Parisian alternative and indie scenes with their debut EP, 2019’s Demian. The EP saw the duo firmly cementing their sound: Diprima and Brown’s dreamy melodies are paired with equally dreamy synth-based soundscapes.

Initially released on cassette tape, the EP was then pressed on vinyl twice. The EP’s success in the synthwave scene enabled the duo to tour across France and the European Union.

The Parisian duo’s highly-anticipated and long-awaited full-length debut, Disquiet is slated for a March 18, 2025 release through Detriti Records. The album, which continues a run of material rooted in absurdist romanticism and Lynchian strangeness, sees the pair drawing from Angelo Badalamenti, John Barry and Leonard Cohen with songs being sometimes dancey, sometimes melodramatic. Lyrics were written and are sung in French, Italian and English throughout. All of this is paired with carefully programmed synth and drum machine-driven arrangements.

Disquiet‘s first single “Extanimal,” is a dream-like song featuring twinkling synth arpeggios, Casio synthesizer-like beats as a lush yet atmospheric bed for Diprima and Brown’s eerily uncanny boy-girl harmonies. The result is a song that reminds me quite a bit of Young Narrator from the Breakers-era Pavo Pavo — but with a nouveau vague sensibility.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gabriella Lima Shares a Quiet Storm-like Bit of Samba

São Paulo-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter Gabriella Lima relocated to Paris back in 2014. And since locating to The City of Light, Lima has been busy crafting material that pushes genre and cultural boundaries. 

Lima’s 2021 full-length debut, the nine-song Bálsamo found the Brazilian-born, French-based artist writing material that drew from soul, pop, samba, chanson and several other styles. Back in 2022, I wrote about album closing track, “Samba de l’amour,” a breezy song featuring twinkling keys, fluttering synths, strummed acoustic guitar and gently swaying samba rhythms paired with Lima’s gorgeous vocal singing bittersweet lyrics in French and Brazilian Portuguese detailing love gained and quickly lost. 

Lima’s latest single “Meu Lugar” is a Sade/Quiet Storm-like touch on samba and Bossa nova featuring an atmospheric yet percussive arrangement with strummed acoustic guitar that serves as a lush bed for the Brazilian-French artist’s achingly tender delivery.

She explains that the song’s lyrics talk about a deep emotional delivery and the transformation of an intense and true relationship.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Big Fish Shares Brooding and Folksy Industrial Hymn “Vad blir kvar (What Will Remain)”

Back in 1988, four Uppsala, Sweden-based teens decided to start a band after returning from a trip to West Berlin. Heavily inspired by the avant garde scene there, Big Fish‘s original lineup featured vocals, upright bass, samplers and scrap metal percussion. With the addition of a guitarist in 1990, the newly-minted quintet became part of an emerging local scene that would subsequently birth acts like Watain,Misery Loves Co., Lost Souls, Malaise and Defleshed. 

Throughout the better part of the 1990s, the Swedish outfit recorded three studio albums, including 1996’s Micheal Blair-produced Andar i Halsen, which they supported with frequently touring across Scandinavia, playing over 500 shows. 

The band broke up in 1997 after its members left Uppsala for work and studies. But their fanbase’s clamoring demand for hearing their material live resulted in the Swedish band playing a handful of reunion shows in 2016. 

2022’s surprise fourth album, Kalla döda drömmar was released to critical praise and was supported by extensive touring across their native Sweden. The band spent the next year writing and recording material, including six planned singles which will appear on the band’s forthcoming fifth album, Frya liter stoft (Four liters of dust) slated for release in May.

Late last year, I wrote about “SNÖ (Snow),” a brutally forceful and thrashing ripper, anchored around down-tuned and rumbling bass, fuzzy power chords. thunderous syncopated drumming and rousingly anthemic and enormous hooks and choruses paired with urgent and punchily delivered vocals singing lyrics in Swedish that describe a return from a bleak, metaphorical winter of isolation — or perhaps intoxication — and discovering that nothing is left. But at its core, the song captures uneasy, brutal nature of our bleak, mad, mad, mad existence.

Album single “Vad blir kvar (What Will Remain) ” is a brooding yet folksy industrial hymn that evokes bleak, dark and harsh winters; trudging through snow, ice and slush to some equally harsh, soul-crushing industrial workplace to make widgets, ball bearings and ammunition; of recognizing that there are small moments of breathtaking beauty and humanity that can be a respite in a brutal world.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Returns with Breakneck and Woozy “Ketchup”

Montréal-based art punk quintet La Sécurité features a collection of current and past members of Choses Sauvages, Laurence-Anne, Silver Dapple, DATES, Pressure Pin, and others. Since their formation back in 2022, the French Canadian quintet developed a sound and approach that meanders around the fringes of punk, New Wave and krautrock paired with jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic yet melodic hooks, seemingly run through an insomniac filter.

While their music is razor sharp and danceable, their lyrical content is rooted in the feminist community-centric ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement. “It’s not just fun and games… it also bites. It’s catchy earworms delivered with a punk attitude,” guitarist Melissa Di Menna says. 

With the release of 2023’s Samuel Gemme-produced Stay Safe!, La Sécurité exploded into the national and international scenes, supporting the album with a busy period of touring with stops across the North American festival circuit, including M for Montréal, New Colossus and SXSW among others, as well as opening for The Go! Team.

Late last year, the JOVM mainstays shared “Detour,” a joint release with beloved indie label Bella Union and their label home Mothland. “Detour” continued where Stay Safe! let off: motorik grooves paired with spiky, off kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks that bring a synthesis of DEVO and the B52s to mind.

The Canadian outfit starts off 2025 with “Ketchup,” a breakneck post-punk ripper anchored around dizzying synth arpeggios and a distorted, down-tuned bass line paired with the JOVM mainstays’ uncanny knack for punchy, shout-along friendly hooks that continues a run of material that seemingly draws from Freedom of Choice-era DEVO.

The verses are coupled with a chord change that helps build the collective’s compelling case against small talk. And while the song isn’t about condiments; instead it sarcastically alludes to ketchup with the line “L’affaire est ketchup,” a Québécois expression meaning: “All is well.”
 
“Though we knew we wanted to write a song about small talk, when we started working on the music, I was mostly scat singing, save for the words ‘L’affaire est ketchup.’ Hence, the song title,” La Sécurité’s frontperson Éliane Viens-Synnott says. “We noticed while playing the song live, that the tune got people bouncing all over the place. The track seems to have that special energy. To keep that energy, Renny [Wilson] went all out with the production. To be fair, we did suggest that he made every track ‘clip.’”
 

Philippe Beauséjour, who directed the accompanying video, explains, “Upon listening to the song, I noticed that it was about small talk, and all these subjects that come up in conversation when we have nothing to say. These empty conversations are often about what ‘normal’ people see on television (weather forecast, news, funny ads…). The papercutting animations stem from my love for Terry Gilliam’s work.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Combo Chimbita Shares Trippy and Meditative House-like “Dímelo”

Acclaimed New York-based Latinx group Combo Chimbita — Carolina Oliveros (vocals, guacharaca), Prince of Queens (synths, bass), Niño Lento (guitar) and Dilemastronauta (drums) — features members of New York-based Colombian folk collective Bulla en el Barrio, and in some way is a sort of related side project.

Combo Chimbita have publicly cited Sun Ra‘s Afro-futurism as a deep influence on their work and overall aesthetic — with the New York-based Latinx group crafting their own take, one, which they’ve dubbed Tropical Futurism. “The idea that the future doesn’t necessarily have to be this super white Western high-tech Star Wars stuff; that the indigenous ideas and culture of people of color, people of Latin America, can also represent a magical and substantial future,” Combo Chimbita explain. “It’s a vision that maybe a lot of people don’t necessarily think about often. The old and deep knowledge that indigenous people have of the land has been neglected for many years as part of capitalism and colonization.”

The band can trace the origins of their genre-defying global sound, which features elements of cumbia, electro pop and Afro-futurism to their late night, experimental jam-driven, year-long residency at renowned, Park Slope, Brooklyn-based world music club Barbés.  Those exploratory jam sessions eventually lead to their self-recorded full-length debut, 2016’s El Corridor del Jaguar. 

2016’s Lily Wen-produced sophomore album Abya Yala found the band further establishing their Afro-futurism-inspired take on cumbia and other traditional Colombian folk styles. Eventually, the acclaimed New York-based outfit caught the attention of ANTI- Records, who signed the band to the label and released their third album 2019’s Ahomale and their fourth album 2022’s IRE.

Recently Combo Chimbita signed to New York-based label Wonderwheel Recordings, who released their latest single “Dímelo,” their first release on the label, and the second in a series of recordings they did with renowned producer Victor Axelrod, a.k.a. Ticklah. “Dímelo” is a dreamy and mediative bit of Larry Levan era-like cumbia featuring a glistening cumbia-influenced rhythm guitar, jazz-influenced hi-hat driven drumming and a strutting bass line, shimmering synth arpeggio bursts and a remarkably catchy hook seemingly guided by Oliveros’ hypnotic wailing.

“Dímelo is an internal dialogue, a sonic representation of what it feels and sounds like to choose yourself. ‘Cuando por fin yo me elegí (I finally chose myself)’ is a phrase that repeats consistently throughout the track. “It’s an honest song,” says Carolina Oliveros, “that speaks on what it means to understand that for however much you may love someone, you can’t force them to love you the same way- that that is love you have to give yourself.”

For the band, in many ways, it’s the first trade in a return to the band’s roots and a hint of what’s to come from them sonically.  

The track will be available on 7″ alongside a remix by Busy Twist in March.

Directed by Andrea Buritica, the accompanying video for “Dímelo” features th members in front of the band in front of projections of VHS fuzz, New York, lighting storms, flowers and more. It emphasizes the trippy yet meditative nature of the song.